


in the rain

by ryukogo (classycloudcuckoolanderclasso)



Category: Kindergarten (Video Game 2017)
Genre: College AU, F/M, Fluff, Future AU, gotta make my own content huh aight fandom, ill make my own goddamn theonny content, ill pilot this ship to hell, ted huxley realizes he is smitten episode 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 11:10:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20375776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/classycloudcuckoolanderclasso/pseuds/ryukogo
Summary: And it was in that gentle summer rain that he turned, and found himself face to face with an angel, and consequently found that he could no longer speak - for words could not truly begin to capture the rate at which his heart swelled, fit to bursting, at her radiant smile.alt. Ted’s brain shuts down as it analyzes his feelings.





	in the rain

“And my knight takes your bishop… and I win!”

“Again with your knights,” Monty groaned, cheek pressed against his palm as Penny clapped on the sidelines, genuinely delighted no matter what the outcome would have been - it was, after all, a friendly match between her adoptive brother and her best friend, and both were known to be rather intelligent when it came to strategy games such as chess. It just so happened, however, that Ted had a tendency to favor his knights, and built his strategies around them - and he won quite nearly every time if Monty didn’t get to his knights first.

Ted puffed up in pride. “What can I say? They’ve always been my specialty and you know it.”

“Even since kindergarten!” Penny chirped, hands clasping together. “Your favorite Monstermon card was… Knight that Turned Evil, right?”

Monty raised an eyebrow. “That tells a lot, Ted.”

“W-well-” Ted flushed red slightly, ducking his head as he began to rearrange the chess pieces into their rightful positions. “It looked cool when we were kids, okay? It was the coolest one to me back then.” Sure, his opinion had changed on Monstermon cards over the years, but that card in particular remained his favorite for some odd reason. Not even Felix could really understand why, but that was Felix. And besides, Felix had better things to do, Ted reasoned to himself, than to understand why his brother continued to enjoy Monstermon cards like a child.

Penny laughed, a sweet, musical sound. Monty had done well with repairing her voicebank over the years. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You know I still keep my doll with me in my room. You can totally still have favorite Monstermon cards.”

“Bet you Felix has one too and just doesn’t tell you,” Monty lightly punched his shoulder, and with a laugh, Ted conceded to the jab, placing the pawns in an array before glancing back at Monty. “So, you white this time, or am I still going first?”

Monty considered this for a bit, but then glanced at the watch on his wrist. With a wince, he admitted, “I don’t think I can play another round, I have someone to meet in a few minutes.”

“Carla?” Ted guessed - correctly, if Monty’s sudden stiffness was to be of note. “Is it a date?”

“NO,” Monty coughed into his fist much too loudly before correcting, “She was asking me for help yesterday on another project. We’re just going to be continuing it today.” Standing up, he made for the steps before suggesting, “Why don’t you play with Penny? She’s good.”

Ted blinked in pleasant surprise before turning to Penny. “You play chess?”

“Nobody ever asked. Monty taught me how to.”

“That must mean you’re at least a shred of a challenge, if you were taught by Monty,” Ted gestured for Penny to take a seat across from him as he went about turning the board around so that the white pieces were on her side instead. They’d been sitting in one of the many gazebos on the Huxley estate out in the gardens after Ted had invited the two over, bored out his wits since his brother had been taken to visit Applesoft’s main warehouse somewhere fifty miles to the east.

Penny gathered her skirts under her before sitting, quirking an eyebrow up. “A  _ shred  _ of a challenge? Do you think I’m not that good at chess, Theo?”

“N-no! I just meant- gah,” Ted fumbled, accidentally knocking over a pawn before mumbling, “This whole cocky stint is more Felix’s thing than mine. I just wanted to try. Sorry.”

Penny’s gaze softened, and she reached over to pat his cheek thoughtfully. “Cockiness doesn’t suit you, though. Like you said, that’s someone else’s thing, not yours. Don’t be someone you’re not.”

“I still think I could probably beat you at chess though. I’ve been at this longer.”

“Is that a challenge, mister Huxley?”

“Maybe so, miss Montgomery.”

Penny’s eyes flashed a dangerous shade of violet - and mentally, Ted sorted through his memories for the color code that he’d been given a long time ago about Penny’s eyes.

_ Red means anger, green means she’s okay, blue means she’s sad, violet means… ah.  _ He glanced back up at Penny and met her gaze with a determined grin.

Violet meant war.

* * *

“Check.”

He moved his piece.

“Check again.”

He moved another.

“Checkmate.”

Another.

“Check.”

His brow furrowed. He moved another piece.

“And that one’s just a stalemate.”

Ted groaned, slumping against the back of his chair. “I give up. You win, Pen. Monty taught you well.”

“...” Penny glanced down at the board again before her eyes flashed their normal delighted shade of green again, the power button symbols in her eyes bright in their glory as she smiled at him. “I won!”

“You did,” Ted agreed, looking at his watch.  _ Geez, were we really at it for three hours? Felix should be home by now… _

“Is something wrong?”

“Ah, n-no, not at all!” Ted reassured, placing a hand atop hers. His hand seemed to dwarf her tiny one as he promised, “I was just surprised that we took three hours with that one.”

Penny blinked, lashes fluttering in the slight breeze. “We took three hours?”

“Yup,” He showed her his watch before taking a quick glance towards the sky. Cloudy for a summer day, but not yet too bad. “I think we should head back inside. The skies aren’t looking too good.”

Penny poked her head out of the gazebo, squinting. “I thought it was summer.”

“Me too,” Ted mumbled, beginning to step out of the gazebo when something wet hit the top of his head. He glanced up almost comically slowly before ducking back under the gazebo as rain suddenly poured, cutting them off from the rosebush-lined cobblestone pathway that lead back to the Huxley home.

Penny stifled a giggle as Ted shook himself off from head to toe, almost like a dog, trying to get the water that had briefly soaked him off. At the mostly failed attempt, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cotton handkerchief before tiptoeing just to reach the top of his head and drape the handkerchief over his hair.

Ted immediately stopped moving as she did this, though upon seeing what she was doing he asked curiously, “What exactly are you doing?”

“Drying you off, what does it look like?” Penny remarked simply before her hands began to rub circles on Ted’s hair furiously, tousling his hair and ruining his hairstyle but effectively taking out what water had gotten into it.

“Ack- hey! Don’t- Fe’s going to kill me-”

“Hold still, Theo, I can’t reach!”

It was an amusing sight, really - Penny was quite literally on the tips of her toes as she reached over to dry Ted’s hair despite his weak protests, and by the time she’d decided that her work was done, his styled hair had already gone wavy and messy, sticking out like a lion’s mane. The image and comparison made Penny stifle a giggle - one that did not go unnoticed.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Ted groused, as Penny dissolved into a fit of giggles. “This was your doing and you know it.”

“Not my fault the rain got you,” Penny replied cheekily. “Meanwhile, I’m all dry.”

Wrong choice of words.

Penny barely had time to blink before Ted had taken her by the hand and pulled her out into the summer rainshower, and with a squeal, she tried to duck back under the gazebo, to no avail. “Theo! Now we’re  _ both  _ getting wet!”

“Now we’ll be even!” Ted declared, a mischievous glint in his eye as he pulled Penny along, deeper into the gardens of the Huxley estate. Her small hand was soft and warm against his larger one as he managed to bring her under the wisteria trees to the east, pausing to catch his breath in between breathless laughs.

Penny morosely and delicately grabbed at her dress’s skirt, examining the degree of soaked it was. “Great. Monty’s going to kill the both of us.”

“That was fun though, right?” Ted genuinely asked. “I mean, we can always get dried up later inside the house, when the rain’s a little calmer.”

Penny rolled her eyes before conceding, “Yes, it was fun. But you know what’s more fun?”

“What?”

Penny kicked off her shoes - her custom made shoes made for her to be able to stand  _ en pointe  _ whenever she so desired -, picked them up, and placed them by the foot of the wisteria they were standing by before running back out in the rain, despite Ted’s shouts for her to come back. Her arms spread out, Penny ran into the trimmed grass barefoot, barely feeling the tickle of the grass against her feet before spinning around in the rain, genuinely delighted to be out there.

Ted smiled and shook his head before sliding out of his own wet socks - eesh. Wet socks  _ and  _ shoes. Why’d he think this was a good idea again?

Tucking the socks into his shoes, he deposited his shoes next to Penny’s, ready to join her out in the gentle summer rain, and it was in that gentle summer rain that he turned, and found himself face to face with an angel, and consequently found that he could no longer speak - for words could not truly begin to capture the rate at which his heart swelled, fit to bursting, at her radiant smile.

The clouds had parted slightly despite the rain, leaving behind small patches of sunlight that hit the grass of the lawns in such a way that highlighted the raindrops that dripped off the stalks and flowers with a radiant shine - and it was in these patches of sunlight that Penny seemed to  _ dance _ , her feet following a pattern she made up all on her own as she seemed to twirl and leap and bow from patch to patch. The lack of shoes didn’t seem to bother her as she moved, almost as though the gardens were her stage and she was the  _ prima  _ ballerina of the performance.

And perhaps to him she was, for he could not explain the manner in which he was transfixed, eyes only for her, the lovely young girl he’d grown to know and love as his dearest friend, the closest to his heart barring only his dear brother, and the way she danced around the gardens of his family’s estate like she was a butterfly, visiting flowers wherever she went

Or perhaps an angel was a better descriptor, for what little sunlight that shone through the clouds bounced against her hair and gave her an almost angelic glow, the raindrops dancing down the curves her hair formed as she pulled her hair back into a bun, decorating it with droplets that seemed to glitter like gems in the sunlight and make her look like her hair was dotted with starlight. Her eyes, to him, sparkled like emeralds in the soft light as she turned to face him, her smile as radiant as the sun that shone above her.

_ Oh,  _ he thought numbly, as Penny approached him and pulled him to the grass to dance with her under the patches of sunlight, pulling him close and giggling all the while.

_ Oh,  _ he thought, as Penny’s more energetic dancing in the rain slowed to a stop, as she gently rested her head against his chest, content to slow dance with him in a particularly large patch of sunlight, their feet dancing around and guiding their way, his arms having found their way around hers and hers around him.

_ Oh,  _ he thought, as one of the maids finally managed to locate them and chastise them for having played in the rain, pulling them along barefoot with their shoes abandoned under the wisteria tree, Penny’s soft giggling the only thing ringing in his ears as they went back inside.

_ Oh,  _ he thought, as he watched Penny be led by one of the maids to get dried off somewhere else and pick out a different outfit while hers dried, her gaze flitting back to his, wrapped in a thick towel, her cheeks tinted red and her eyes glittering a soft rose pink.

_ Oh,  _ he thought numbly, as he sat on his bed, soaking wet from the rain and remembering what rose pink meant in Penny’s eye color code according to Monty.

** _Affection. To put it bluntly, she thinks fondly of you. Not necessarily romantic, but she’s fond of you._ **

_ Oh,  _ ** _fuck_ ** _ ,  _ Ted thought numbly, as he realized exactly what the hell was going on with him.

Oh, he was so  _ boned _ .


End file.
